Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Want out? Better go now
Time is just about out for South Floridians trying to outrun Hurricane Irma.
Roads are clogged. Hotels are full. Gas pumps are dry. Flights are booked. Even trains out of town are sold out.
Freda Broderick, 55, drove from her home in Plantation with her husband and dog to stay with family near Daytona Beach. It was a tough decision.
“We’ve been through a lot of denial, grief, worry about losing our stuff,” Broderick said. “You don’t know when you close your door if it’s the last time you will see your place.”
Emergency managers are urging South Florida residents not to drive long distances to escape Hurricane Irma’s wrath as hundreds of thousands have been ordered to evacuate in South Florida and else-
where. Instead, they want South Florida residents living on barrier islands, or in mobile homes and low-lying coastal neighborhoods, to seek shelter with family and friends who are inland or go to an emergency shelter.
“You have people running out of gas,” said Miguel Ascarrunz, Broward’s emergency management director.
With the entire state in Irma’s potential track, heading to Orlando might not take you out of hurricaneforce winds. Should you stay or go? If you do want to leave, do it now, officials say.
“The roads will fill up quickly, so you need to go immediately,” Gov. Rick Scott said.
Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties have ordered evacuations for barrier islands and lowlying coastal neighborhoods.
All residents of the Keys have been ordered to leave.
Evacuation zones are based on storm surge projections, which historically has been the biggest killer in hurricanes.
If you stay, Broward County has opened 14 shelters but at least one was already full. Palm Beach County shelters will open 15 shelters this morning.
Emergency managers have long feared that mass evacuations could lead to more deaths, and instead, they focus on only evacuating those most at risk, said Hugh Willoughby, a hurricane expert from Florida International University.
Uncertainty of weather forecasts and the geography of Florida could also mean people will evacuate to a place that gets hit harder by the storm, he said.
During Hurricane Floyd in 1999, almost 1.3 million people were told to evacuate but more than 2 million did so, jamming highways from Florida to the Carolinas. Some were trapped on the road for up to 21 hours.
That storm was supposed to hit Jacksonville but ended up making landfall in North Carolina.
In 2005, 3 million people fled Hurricane Rita when it appeared the storm would swamp Houston. Instead, the storm veered east, sparing the city. There were 137 people who died in the evacuation, many succumbing to heat exhaustion along traffic-jammed and gas-deprived highways. How can you get out? Heavy traffic was reported on Interstate 95 and Florida’s Turnpike. Tolls have been waived.
Gas stations at rest stops on the turnpike are fully fueled, officials said. The Florida Department of Transportation and the Florida Highway Patrol are coordinating traffic at the pumps. Drivers are being allowed to fill their cars but not portable gas containers.
Drivers are not being allowed on the shoulder but should that become necessary it would be on designated evacuation routes that include: I-75 from Wildwood to the Georgia state line; I-10 from Jacksonville to I-75; I-4 from Tampa to Orlando; and I-75 Alligator Alley.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said he’s suggested making interstates one-way out of Florida, but no decision has been made yet on whether that measure will be taken.
Two cellphone apps could help you find gas and get out. GasBuddy is tracking stations that have fuel. Waze provides information on road closures and traffic conditions.
Linda Weiss, 61, of Delray Beach, said she and her husband used Waze to travel back roads and avoid bottlenecks on the turnpike. Weiss said she was determined to stay in Palm Beach County but succumbed to pressure from relatives in Atlanta insisting she flee.
“My parents and family were driving me crazy,” Weiss said. “Once we saw the storm was going to make a direct hit, we said, ‘OK, we’ll come.’ ”
Officials are doing everything they can to get gas into the state, Scott said.
JetBlue and American Airlines have capped prices on airline tickets. Many flights are sold out, but a few seats are available. And airports will be closing.
Fort Lauderdale-based JetSmarter, which offers shared and private charter flights, was offering flights to New York out of Florida on Friday for $3,500 per person.
Amtrak will begin suspending train service starting today.
Where can you stay?
The Orlando region has more than 120,000 hotel rooms. The timing of the storm — arriving in the week after the Labor Day holiday — and the exit of tourists escaping the potential wrath of the hurricane could mean more availability.
Orlando’s Rosen Hotels & Resorts have established “distress rates” in its seven resorts for Florida residents who are Irma evacuees. Those rates for the three Rosen Inns on Orlando’s International Drive and the Clarion Inn Lake Buena Vista near Walt Disney World are $59 per night. A $79 per night rate applies to Rosen Plaza and to Rosen Centre, both on International Drive.
A spokeswoman says the company has established a wait list and is filling it as cancellations come in.
The Atlanta Motor Speedway has announced it will offer free camping in the the infield for Irma evacuees.
Home-sharing booking platform Airbnb has also activated its disaster-response program to enable hosts in northern Florida and southern Georgia communities to offer temporary housing to displaced residents, tourists, emergency responders and relief workers free of charge.
Those accommodations would be offered through Sept. 28 through a link on its website, according to Airbnb.